Our Honor Defend

You wouldn’t know this was the fabled Hoosiers — historical juggernauts of the conference — after watching this game, or if Houston Baptist stuck around town for round two in crimson jerseys.  On Big Ten Tuesday on ESPN, Ohio State ran over Indiana en route to a 77-53 victory.  The 24 point margin at the final buzzer belies the feel of a 40pt whipping throughout the duration of the game.  Indeed, Musburger and Lavin spent most of the second half talking about something other than the game itself.  More on that later.

The game started as fortuitously as it possibly could for Ohio State.  Though Indiana controlled the tip and got a quick field goal, Ohio State responded on its first possession with a three pointer by William Buford.  Indiana turned the ball over, and eventually gave up a 3 point play to Evan Turner.  A Nick Williams field goal on the next possession notwithstanding, the onslaught began afterwards.  Indeed, the first half was, in spirit, a 3 point contest… but only if the matchup was between Larry Bird and Robert Parish.  Ohio State connected on eight of its first 10 3 point attempts, a start about as well as you can imagine it for Matta’s perimeter-oriented inclinations.  Ohio State finished the first half 11 of 16 from behind the line (an Ohio State record for makes in a period), and eventually ended the game 13 of 24 from deep.  Jon Diebler took the lead in the 3pt barrage, making 5 of 6 from the perimeter in the first half.  He eventually finished 5 of 8, and 6 of 11 overall, which was good enough for 17 points and game MVP honors.

Indiana, to their credit, hacked away at what was, at the largest, a 23 point deficit in the first half, resulting in a somewhat uncomfortable 13 point margin for the first couple minutes after intermission.  However, Indiana’s lack of thoroughbreds to win a 40 minute race, a recurring problem this season from Cream’s young Hoosiers, eventually buried the Hoosiers even further.  Ohio State’s lead extended back to just under 20 midway through the second half.  A series of mini-runs eventually pushed the deficit past the twenties, culminating in the 24 point defeat for the Hoosiers.  While Indiana came out firing — a pea-shooter, but firing nonetheless — out of the gates, Ohio State was equal to the task.  The 3 point shots were not falling as easily for Ohio State in the second half, but Ohio State was more than capable of finding other means to overwhelming a very green Hoosiers team.

The Buckeyes improve to 12-3 overall and 2-2 in conference.  The Hoosiers, on the other hand, have just lost their 7th straight game and 9th of their last 10.  Ouch.  It sucks for Indiana, but this is the price they’ll have to pay for the interim.  They’ll be better next year, and should be even better the year after.  But this year? Ouch.

Ouch.

Other Observations

• Evan Turner didn’t exactly have the greatest game.  He didn’t have to, of course, and he wasn’t bad… just sloppy.  He finished with 13 points, 5 assists and fouled out after a really bad few possessions late in the second half.
• When PJ Hill got into the game midway through the first half, I kind of treated him like a human victory cigar.  This isn’t entirely appropriate, given the Lighty injury and Crater transfer, but I like my version of reality so much better.  As it is, I loved watching PJ Hill play this game.  It was just… sooo.. violent.   Controlled? No.  Sublime? No.  Focused? Not entirely.  He played like his hair was on fire, and, knowing that he may be confined to role player status for the rest of his career at Ohio State, that he could at least unleash some fury on some hapless Hoosiers.  It was fun to watch, and I genuinely liked the effort.  Kudos to you PJ.
• Dallas Lauderdale had 0 points.  Better yet, he had no attempts.  0-0, but with 6 blocks and 4 rebounds.  Bringing Dallas Lauderdale into this game against an obviously green Hoosiers team with a freshman interior was like bringing a gun to a knife fight debate.
• I like the Club Trillion shirts behind the Buckeye bench.  Very nice.
• On that note, I like Dallas Lauderdale as much as the next Buckeye fan, but Mark Titus really should’ve done those player introductions.
• I’m convinced Steve Lavin is going to become college basketball’s Lou Holtz in the next couple years, and he doesn’t have the senility or grampa feel to justify it.  I think the motor oil he’s hoarding in his hair is gradually seeping into his brain.  That’s osmosis, people.
• If you don’t believe me, there’s the soliloquies Lavin had on hippie chic in Berkeley and his pear-shaped figure as confirmation.
• I loved Steve Lavin speaking about Jim Harrick as if he were a strict disciplinarian and an honest mountain man.  Umm… yeah… nnnnnnoo.  Not quite.
• The devolution of the broadcast in the final minutes had to be somewhat embarrassing for any ESPN brass monitoring performance.  With the game well in hand, Musburger and Lavin decided to go off on a tangent about all sorts of topics.  Somehow, the Trojans football team came up, which — naturally — got Musburger all wet about Pete Carroll’s 2008 campaign.  Of course, it didn’t stop there, as Lavin — still letting it be known that he used to live in Los Angeles and, believe it or not, was deemed qualified enough to be the head coach in Westwood of one of the most storied programs in college basketball¹ — brought up the performance of the Pac 10 in general in the bowl season and began the pitch, as is ESPN’s policy now, for a playoff.  He even came up with his own proposal.  The playoff topic in college football is, of course, a different topic, but I bring this up because I’m annoyed at the propensity for talking heads on the moving pictures box to push the playoff as the ultimate solution for college football and never once stop to analyze the underlying problems that come in tow.  Good journalism is still a bad science, but this was even bad journalism.  Where things really get hairy is when Lavin decided to bring up Barack Obama, turning to Musburger and saying “your guy Barack Obama” is in favor of a playoff in college football, and citing optimism that the future President’s preferences — as understated and ill-conceived as they are, surely as no one is willing to draw attention to that² — might bode well for its eventual installment.  The biggest problem in this mess of dialogue is that outing political preferences on national television is generally a no-no in the world of journalism, and it capped off a final couple minutes that I could only wince through.  Sports and politics should remain separate, analytically distinct broadcasts, invariably interwined though they may be in the real world (see: Congress’ penchant to harass baseball players about steroids when Congress is doing — or not doing — other things that it doesn’t want you to know about).
• I guess Lavin gets some points for actually breaking down Obama’s ball-handling skills and the limitations in his game.  That was… well… not important.

1. I lived out in LA for Lavin’s tenure.  Trust me, if you were out there too, you’d remember it forever… [↩]
2. and probably all for the better, I guess, or that P word would just come up more.. [↩]